thank god they got him. >> without forensics, we would have not convicted michael bryant. this is a man who did believe he was smarter than everybody else. and he thought he could manipulate ann haynes. he thought he could manipulate investigators, and he believed that he was getting away with it. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a tense standoff seeming to grow worse in ukraine, diplomacy making no dent yet, as a u.n. envoy is surrounded by armed men, forced to cleveleave crime kra. we're live in ukraine, in brussels everywhere we need to be with the latest. a top general on trial today for sexual assault. he says it was consensual. so why is he pleaded guilty to some of those charges? and was oscar pistorius trigger happy? prosecutors making their case at his murder trial as witnesses

describe what they saw and heard the night he shot his girlfriend to death. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. great to see you this morning. march 6th thursday 5:00 a.m. in the east. let's get you up to speed. first, the growing crisis in ukraine. even though some don't want them there, right now, 35 international military observers from 18 nations, including the u.s. are headed to crimea and they may be putting their lives on the line. just yesterday, the u.n.'s special envoy to crimea robert sery left the region and abandoned his mission after a tense encounter with pro-russian militias. crimea remaining under russian control this morning. we're just learning russian forces have scuttled an old warship in an inlet, trapping as many as seven ukrainian naval vessels, while two other heavily armed ukrainian ships remain blocked from leaving port for a second week blocked by four russian vessels. we'll get the latest from our michael holmes live from kiev.

what can you tell us? bring us up to speed this morning, michael. >> reporter: yeah a couple of things to bring you up to date on christine. first of all, we've just gotten word there's been an announcement that in crimea in ten days from now, there is going to be a referendum in which the people of crimea as we said the majority ethnic russian there, are going to be asked whether they want to become an autonomous region within the russian federation or whether they want to become an autonomous region within ukraine. that's going to be a vital question and how it's answered could determine how this all goes. there has been speculation that that would have been an out if you like for this if they were to become a more autonomous region within ukraine, and perhaps, have their own local regional government that would be probably pro-russian. but if they respond that they want to become an autonomous region within the russian federation that raises a whole new ball game. so that was just announced. that's going to take place in

ten days. the other developments you mentioned one of them which is a curious one. in western crimea there are ukrainian ships in that bay, and they have been blocked for a little while by russian ships, but what's happened now is they've scuttled an old ship there and making it more of a permanent blockade if you'd like of those ukrainian naval ships. we've also had overnight there has been trouble in a place called danyet which is to the west of here. two government buildings were taken over by pro-russian demonstrators. they've done it before in recent days and left. well they got pushed out, about 80 of them by russian police this morning -- by ukrainian police this morning, rather. and several people were injured in the clashes that went on overnight. so certainly a very tense situation remains here in ukraine, christine. >> michael holmes live for us this morning in kiev. thank you, michael. all right, russian news

viewers got to see a different point of view during yesterday's "russia today" newscast. look at news anchor liz wall an american working for russia's state-owned tv station. she resigns on the air. listen to what she told her russian audience followed by her comments last night to cnn's anderson cooper. >> i cannot be part of network funded by the russian government that white-washes the actions of putin. i would hope as a reporter and in life you should always seek the truth, spread the truth, disseminate the truth. and what's clear is what's happening right now amid this crisis is that rt is not about the truth. it's about promoting a putinist agenda and i can also tell you firsthand, it's also about bashing america. >> there are people who point out that rta has been about those things for quite some time. a day earlier, abby martin another russian-based anchor on russian tv broke with the

decision and announced the invasion of ukraine as wrong. martin who you're leak at right there, still has a job. now to the diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis in ukraine. secretary of state john kerry says he is hoping to speak again later today with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. the two met yesterday in paris. the secretary characterized the talks as constructive. and right now at this moment europe's 28 heads of state are huddling in brussels to discuss how far they are willing to go to punish russia. cnn's erin mclaughlin is there. we understand the eu is talking about freezing the assets of ukraine's former president, viktor yanukovych along with his closest aides. how far are these sanctions that the eu leaders are talking about now, how far are they willing to go? >> reporter: hi john. well those asset freezes that you mentioned actually began today. the question now becomes how far will europe go to put pressure on russia?

now the members of the 28-member eu states arriving here in brussels. the meeting is expected to begin in about a half hour. on the table, a range of measures including the possibility of individual asset freezes of people in russia believed to be responsible for the crisis in crimea. also being considered suspending potentially, negotiations around visa issues. so all of that set to be discussed here but any sanction approved by europe requires the approval of 28 member states which can be problematic, considering the diversity of opinion that exists in europe on the questions of sanctions against europe for instance, the eastern european countries have been very aggressive in their rhetoric towards approving possible sanctions, whereas countries that have economic interests in russia such as germany, seems to be more reticent preferring dialogue first. so it will be interesting to see what sort of consensus comes

out of today's meeting. john? >> if any at all. erin mclaughlin in brussels for us, thanks so much. happening today, a high-ranking army general plans to plead guilty to some charges at his sexual assault court-martial. a lawyer for brigadier general jeffrey sinclair says his client will admit to adultery and possessing pornography, but will not admit that he sexually assaulted a female captain. it's not clear if the military judge overseeing the court-martial will accept the pleas. sinclair has long maintained his relationship with the captain was consensual. the president is reaching out to latinos to sign up for obamacare. the president will be participating at a town hall meeting this morning in washington. members of the latin american community will get a chance to ask questions about the affordable care act. right now, 10.2 million latinos in the united states are uninsured. meanwhile, the white house is offering relief to millions of americans who were dropped from the health care plans because of obamacare. those people will now be able to renew their policies for two more years, even though they're not in compliance with the new health care law.

that pushes the hot-button issue well past midterm elections this fall. >> some people say it pushes the boundaries of what the president can do by law as well. >> will the insurance companies allow them to renew that? that's the question too. this morning, one of america's biggest coal companies is set to pay hundreds of millions to clean up what comes out of its mines. alpha natural resources reached a deal with the federal government and five states to put in new equipment to stop pollutants from entering the water supply. the company has been hit with more than 6,000 clean water violations since 2006 and agreed to pay $27 million in fines. breaking overnight, an american eagle jet forced to make an emergency landing in greenville, texas, shortly after taking off from dallas-ft. worth. wfaa reports the flight lasted eight minutes. one passenger tweeted there was smoke in the plane. everyone is fine. flight 3400 was headed to bowling, illinois when the cockpit crew decided an emergency landing was needed. still no word on the cause of the smoke. the pregnant mom who drove

her van into the ocean with her three children inside was talking about demons she was acting oddly in the hours before she left home. that's according to family members. witnesses rushed into the water off the coast of daytona beach, florida, to rescue the children with only seconds to spare. police taking a cautious approach with the mother. >> we're looking to see if criminal charges are going to be appropriate or if this is a medical issue. at this time we don't know. it's early in the investigation, but we want to get to the bottom of it to determine which is the correct way to go about it. >> one of the rescuers tells reporters two of the children in the back of the van were screaming, "our mommy's trying to kill us" seconds before they were pulled to safety. the mother the driver also pregnant. >> such a sad story. the pacific northwest bracing for more rain today after days of downpours caused mud slides. look at this one. this was near seattle right there, pushing a home right from its path. luckily luckily, no one was inside at the time but there are real

worries that these seeked hills could give way even more. >> indra petersons here with her forecast for us. good morning, indra. >> very easy to see as we're showing all the mull slides towards the pacific northwest, very easy to see the moisture. sliding from the hawaiian islands up into that region. that's the concern. they're expecting even more rain in the region today as a series of storms is still expected to make their way through. in the next five days noothanother 5, 6 inches possible. but the concern is temperatures are above normal. they're seeing a lot of rain and snow back and forth, and with that the threat for avalanches will still be high in addition to the rain they're already seeing. so that's really the concern out west. down to the southeast, temperatures still mild but look at this starting to recover, climbing even to the 70s. they have had some rain. they're going to continue to see some rain today, but we're going to watch this carefully, because the system that's been bringing rain into the southeast is going to make its way up the coastline. it's going to intersect with the cold air coming in from the north and we have a threat for icing conditions from just about d.c. kind of in through raleigh for the morning commute

tomorrow. so, that's the main concern as those system clash. otherwise, temperatures in the northeast rebounding. this looks good. we're actually going to start seeing 50s, which is great. the midwest, another shot of cold air heading your way, a little snow but overall, temperatures not too bad. but scary out west. all that rain at one time never a good thing. >> i can accept those numbers on the board. >> 50s? >> 50 right? >> thanks indra. stocks higher around the world, calm returns to global markets. another gain of 1% for japan's stock market. european stocks moving higher as well. that's the picture at the moment. >> wow. >> it was a flat day in the u.s. market yesterday. look we have a big jobs report tomorrow. that's going to move into the spotlight. don't expect much frankly. the winter that just won't end likely weighing on higher. economists from cnn money expect only 150,000 jobs added, the unemployment rate to hold at 6.6% although an economist at deutsche bank lowered his to 120,000. cuts related to weather-related

things like construction people in the mall not shopping or eating out, all that in february. two weeks until the first day of spring. >> can't wait. >> me too. oscar pistorius back in court this morning as prosecutors try to prove he killed his girlfriend in cold blood. the very latest live from the courthouse coming up. and chris christie set to deliver one of the biggest speeches of his political life trying to convince an unlikely audience conservatives, that he's their guy if he decides to run for president. we'll have that story coming up next. [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air®. [ sneezes ] i always say be the man with the plan but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment

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of crimes as head of libya's finish forces. day four of testimony in the oscar pistorius murder trial. prosecutors pulling out all the stops this morning, trying to paint the blade runner as a trigger-happy, cold-blooded killer. there's really been so much drama already in this case in this courtroom. let's bring in senior international correspondent nic robertson live from pretoria. nic, bring us up to speed on what's happening this morning. >> reporter: yeah john just another day of drama and intense questioning by the defense attorney barry ru, of the third witness, the husband of the first witness, the near neighbor just questioning him, piling the pressure on saying have you ever heard shots from a nearby house? no, i haven't, he said. have you ever heard somebody break down a door with a cricket bat from a nearby house? no i haven't. i put it to you that you weren't

hearing a woman screaming, you were hearing a man, oscar pistorius, is what he was implying. and the witness said no i'm very clear, i heard a woman screaming, then i heard a man in a mono tone. then i heard the man sort of apologizing, almost in the sound of his voice, for the neighbors, for creating all this attention. but this witness has still stuck to his guns that there were screams of a woman followed by shots. the defense just trying to break that down because what the defense is trying to do is to show that there was no argument between oscar pistorius and his girlfriend reeva steenkamp, and therefore, no justification for this premeditated murder that he would have gunned her down because he was angry with her. we've now just gone on to the seventh witness, another neighbor. we're going to hear his testimony. but it's just it's clear how hard fought all this information was. the prosecution came back again to talk to that third witness,

just to sort of, if you will set the record straight for that. so it's key how important all this testimony is right now, john. >> it really is crucial. the defense has to discredit just about every one of these witnesses. nic robertson for us in pretoria covering this case. really appreciate it. all right, what exactly did pope francis say about civil unions? the new pope causing a stir in a wide-ranging interview on ash wednesday, while insisting that marriage is between a man and a woman, the pope seemed to open the door to civil unions. now, a vatican spokesman later clarified, saying the pope was not wading into the debate on gay civil unions. he was speaking about the duties of the state and not the church. >> he is the master of language that leaves space open for interpretation. all right, new this morning, the brother of afghan president hamid karzai pulling out of his country's upcoming presidential election apparently because of pressure from the president himself. karzai will instead support the former foreign minister also believed to be the first choice of his brother. elections take place april 5th

but with 11 candidates a runoff is almost certain to be necessary. very big day for new jersey governor chris christie set to speak near washington at the annual conservative political action conference cpac. a speech before the conference is seen as a key stepping stone for republicans who want to run for the white house, especially if christie wants to bolster his reputation in light of the investigation into misconduct in his office. >> that's set for 11:45 eastern, a show called "at this hour." we'll be covering it during that show. in the fight against hiv, this is big news. a year after doctors first reported an hiv-positive baby had been seemingly cured of the disease, a second case has been revealed. like i said a very big deal showing that aggressive drug treatment right after birth can reduce hiv to undetectable levels. they can't find any traces of the virus in these two babies. doctors are now planning a clinical trial to see if the result can be replicated in other newborns born to

hiv-positive mothers. >> these are exciting developments really are. >> so many coming out of this conference right now. all right, coming up for us it is definitely march, and the madness on the court could cost duke its top spot in the tournament! a big upset last night. where did this come from? joe carter has the details in the blue devils' big loss and also concerns about coach k., in the "bleacher report," next. ee things from the best angle i could. it's how i look at life. especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin but wondered, could i focus on something better? my doctor told me about eliquis for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin. two, eliquis had less major bleeding than warfarin. and three, unlike warfarin there's no routine blood testing. [ male announcer ] don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells

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an unranked wake forest team. >> yeah and if that wasn't enough, coach k. experienced a health scare during the end of the game. a lot of people concerned about this. joe carter explains in the "bleacher report." >> hey, guys. coach k. is a very emotional guy, gets very heated at times on the sideline. unfortunately, last night stress from the loss got the better of him. duke says that coach k. during the end of the game suffered dizzy spells. it forced him to a knee during a late-game time-out. and after the game he decided to skip his usually news conference but he was able to leave the arena under his own power. duke says he's expected to make a full recovery. it's just a scare. so while coach k. may have poured a little too much emotion into the game his team certainly did not have enough in the second half. duke did not score a basket for five critical minutes, allowing wake forest to cruise to a ten-point upset win. let's talk a little golf. tiger woods says he's feeling much better. treatment all week has helped ease the pain that forced him to quit last sunday. he'll start the cadillac

championship in miami without a practice round, but tiger says he doesn't need one. >> i feel good. it's been a long couple days of just treatment nonstop, trying to get everything calmed down first of all, get all the inflammation out. and then from there, getting the firing sequence right again. trending this morning on bleacherreport.com jim harbaugh. we know he's a great football coach. he was a solid nfl quarterback, too. as it turns out, the guy can also hoop. during his visit to a kansas jayhawks basketball practice the guy drains a half-court shot you know like nothing, during a shoot-around. having a little fun. of course wearing his signature outfit. it's got to be the $8 khakis. khakis. running on to the field, we know it's usually a bad idea, unless you're an adorable little boy. this youngster invaded the pitch during yesterday's brazil/south

africa game. >> look so cute! >> then he got carried around by brazilian star namar! he should have been carried off, but instead, they carried him around then jumped for joy. looked like namar and the kid were having so much fun. what a great experience for this kid. all together now, guys aww. >> aww. >> encouraging children everywhere to go right on to the pitch. >> he's going to start a little trend. >> adorable. >> it is adorable, guys. good to see both of you. we'll have the latest from the ukraine, where a u.n. envoy was surrounded by armed men in uniform and forced out of crimea. there is a major development on the future of crimea we have to tell you about, right after the break. ♪ ♪ [ banker ] sydney needed some financial guidance so she could take her dream to the next level. so we talked about her options. her valuable assets were staying. and selling her car wouldn't fly. we helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today...and tomorrow. so let's see what we can do about that... remodel. motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. they take a banker. make a my financial priorities

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danger on the ground in crimea. a u.n. envoy blockaded by gunmen and forced to leave. this morning, more work to find a diplomatic solution as crimea's parliament proposes a referendum on joining russia. the crisis in ukraine appears to be escalating at this hour. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> hello, i'm john berman. 30 minutes after the hour right now. and the growing crisis in ukraine, it is changing minute by minute even though some don't want them there, right now 35 international military observers from 18 nations,

including the u.s. are headed to crimea and they may be putting their lives on the line. just yesterday, the u.n.'s special envoy to crimea robert serry, abandoned his mission after an encounter with pro-russia militias. crimea remains under russian control this morning. we're just learning that russian forces have scuttled an old warship in an inlet, trapping as many as seven ukrainian naval vessels vessels, while two other heavily armed ukrainian ships remain blocked from leaving port by russian vessels. then the breaking news now. in ten days the people of crimea will be asked to decide in a referendum whether they want to stay part of ukraine or join russia. they will vote on whether they can join russia. that is a very very big deal and i think a little bit unexpected. at this moment ukrainian riot police are in a tense standoff with pro-russian demonstrators in the southern ukraine port city of odessa a very historic city. our matthew chance is there.

matthew, give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground. >> reporter: hey, john. a lot of tension here in odessa. you can see i'm at the main government building in this city. it's the third biggest city in ukraine. and these hundreds of people that have gathered outside ofare pro-russian demonstrators in this city in ukraine. they're demanding that the authorities that, of course control this administration building here authorities loyal to kiev leave the building and hand it over to them. they're also demanding that there should be a referendum here as well in odessa on a union with russia. one of the protesters that gathered here saying to me earlier that they want full political union with the russians. obviously, this kind of tension is taking place not just here in odessa odessa. we talked about crime kra as well just a short distance from here. but also in towns and cities all

along this southern and eastern area of ukraine, where the majority of the population are ethnic russians and where they speak russian as their primary language. speak to any of these people and they'll say they believe the new authorities in ukraine in particular are discriminating against them discriminating against the use of the russian language even sending what they call fascists to this area to attack the russian-speaking population. now, we've seen no evidence of that but that's certainly the rhetoric that's being talked about here in this square outside this main government administrative building in odessa. take a look at some of the people around me. many of them -- you can see them right now, but many of them are wearing masks. there's a sort of gang of young men chanting anti -- chanting pro-russian slogans. poster there showing a picture of some of the leaders of the interim administration including the interim prime minister there on the left of

the screen. vitaly klitschko there, as well i can see a number of people who are now basically in charge in kiev. these people very much opposed to that. they say they want a referendum at the very least so that they can choose a closer union with russia and a more distant separation from the authorities in kiev. >> matthew chance in odessa right now. those scenes are being played out in cities and towns along the southeastern part of ukraine. thank you, matthew. it's why the news out of crimea just minutes ago is so crucial. there will be a referendum in crimea. voters there will get to choose whether they stay part of ukraine or actually join the russian federation becoming part of russia. i think that was unforeseen. people thought that maybe crimea would be able to remain autonomous but given the choice to join russia if that happens, that will put the u.s. and european union in a real bind. >> a game-changer in what they do next. russian news viewers got to

see something a little different during russia's "russia today" newscast. liz wall an american working for russian-owned state television resigned on the air. this is what she told her russian viewers. listen to that. then followed by her interview last night with cnn's anderson cooper. >> i cannot be part of network funded by the russian government that white-washes the actions of putin. i would hope as a reporter and in life you should always seek the truth, spread the truth, disseminate the truth. and what's clear is what's happening right now amid this crisis is that rt is not about the truth, it's about promoting a putinist agenda. and i can tell you firsthand, it's also about bashing america. >> the network called it a publicity stunt. a day earlier, another russian-based anchor on russian tv abby martin broke with the station's editorial position and denounced the invasion of ukraine, telling viewers what

russia did was wrong. station executives told reporters martin had been misled by american media. all right, as both sides dig in in crimea and diplomatic efforts to end the crisis intensify, russian president vladimir putin is staying silent letting his foreign minister do the talking, and that's making a lot of western leaders a little leery. phil black is in moscow for us this morning. good morning, phil. >> reporter: yeah good morning, christine. here in moscow something of a pause. no public statements on ukraine, but also a sense that there is active diplomacy under way as well. president vladimir putin spoke by phone last night with german chancellor angela merkel and today the foreign minister sergey lavrov is in rome along with u.s. secretary of state john kerry. it is expected they will meet in moscow and will be watching events in brussels closely as european leaders discuss sanction options against russia. but here no change. while no talk of further military incursions no change no acknowledgement that those are russian soldiers on the

ground occupying crimea. and indeed a deputy foreign minister today said that the west is to blame for events in ukraine, because western countries supported extremists in seizing power. meanwhile, russian state media reports that president putin's personal approval rating has been sitting at a two-year high for the last two weeks. polling shows that around 68% of russians approve of his work and the pollsters' analysis is that that is because of the successful sochi olympic winter games and the president's position on ukraine. christine. >> phil black for us this morning in moscow. thanks phil. >> got a domestic audience to be sure there. a guilty plea expected from a high-ranking army general at his court-martial for sexual assault. a lawyer for brigadier general jeffrey sinclair says he will admit to adultery and pornography, but not that he sexually assaulted a captain. he says it was consensual. it is not clear if the military judge will accept these pleas.

the president is reaching out to latinos to sign up for the affordable care act. he'll be participating in a town hall meeting this morning in washington. members of the latin american community will get a chance to ask the president questions about obamacare. right now, 10.2 million latinos in this country are uninsured. the white house is offering some relief to millions of americans who were dropped from their health care plans because of obamacare. those people will now be able to renew their policies for two more years, even though those policies are not in compliance with the new health care law. that pushes this hot-button issue well beyond the midterm elections this fall. it is controversial. republicans say this proves that obamacare, in their words, is broken. they also say that the president is going beyond his powers to keep on changing and modifying this law without congressional support. >> yeah they have a running total of the number of little changes there have been along the way in a very very big bill. all right, let's get a look at your thursday forecast. indra petersons is back with us. good morning, indra. >> good morning. a lot of things are changing. going to be warmer in the east

but keep in mind out west heavy rain. that's still the forecast here. as you can see that moisture cell really extending from south of hawaii into the pacific northwest. we'll continue on see above-normal temperatures heavy rainfall as several systems make their way through. this is a concern not just for flooding and mud slides that they've already been seeing but of course the threat for avalanches. we're seeing a lot of kind of temperature fluctuations and with that that's never a good thing for the most recent snowfall they've been seeing. otherwise, southeast, we're seeing a lot of rain recently. keep in mind, temperatures rebounding and for the weekend. so we love that. just keep in mind the low that's in the south, that's going to start climbing up the coastline and intersecting with the cold air we've been dealing with. put those air masses together and you have the threat for icing, tomorrow morning's commute. d.c. down through raleigh, a concern for sleet, possibly even freezing rain for you. otherwise, temperatures though are improving, maybe even some 50s, guys as we go towards the weekend. midwest cooling off a little bit as another shot of cold air and snow heads their way friday into saturday. 50s. hello. >> 50's good but i don't usually feel badly for the

people in washington, d.c., but they've had a rough go of it. we're talking about ice and another -- >> not too bad for me in new york too, because it's nice. >> thanks indra. global stocks moving higher this morning after jumping in and out of negative territory. japan had another good day, gains of more than 1%. hong kong closed higher as well. stock markets in europe all higher at this moment, and so are u.s. stock futures. we'll be watching for the government's big job report out tomorrow. we'll also get weekly jobless claims later this morning. that will be a real domestic view of what's going on in the jobs market. cnn money expects the jobless rate to have held steady at 6.6% maybe 150,000 jobs added last month, although some economists are starting to sharpen their pencil and lower their expectations because the winter storms may have hit jobs again last month. spring cannot come soon enough, folks. in the 12 months leading up to the winter the economy had been averaging 200,000 jobs a month, then mother nature stepped in so. >> how long until spring? >> i don't know like 19 days or

something? >> who's counting? contempt charges could be next after a house hearing turned ugly. they were supposed to be discussing irs misconduct when it turns into a real shouting match. we'll show you next. i always say be the man with the plan but with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. i saw my doctor. a blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. we talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18

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other allergies to aspirin nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history. and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. breaking overnight, an american eagle jet forced to make an emergency landing in greenville texas, shortly after taking off from dallas-ft. worth. cnn affiliate wfaa reports this flight lasted just eight minutes. >> wow. >> a passenger on board tweeting there was smoke in the plane, but everyone is fine. flight 3400 was heading to moline illinois when the cockpit crew decided an emergency landing was needed. still no word on the cause of that smoke. contempt charges apparently now being considered for a former irs official connected to alleged targeting of conservative groups. lois lerner again took the fifth before a house committee on wednesday. she would not answer questions. but when chairman darrell issa tried to adjourn the hearing,

ranking member elijah cummings objected and then an angry exchange took place. take a look. >> mr. chairman you cannot run a committee like this. you just cannot do this. >> answer the question -- >> what's the big deal? may i ask my question? may i state my statement? >> you're all free to leave. we've adjourned, but the gentleman can ask his question. >> the central republican accusation -- >> we're adjourned. close it down. >> i've actually been told that these men are pretty good friends, by the way. >> but they closed his mike down. >> they did. issa said afterwards he felt he was being slandered. cummings said he felt he had been shut out of the investigation. but like i said the crazy thing there, i think those guys get along in real life. >> politics, john. >> i know. >> you can get alone fine in real life -- >> look at us. everybody thinks we get along. >> we don't get along? all right, this next story gives john shirreffs. >> i hate this.

>> the s.a.t. going back to basics. big changes set for 2016. that means if your kid is a ninth grader they'll have new changes. the test will return to that 1600 scoring scale. it had been 2400 for several years. the essay will become optional now, not mandatory. students will no longer be penalized for wrong answers. the head of the college board, which administered this exam says standardized tests have become far too disconnected from the actual work of high school students. and a big knock on this test for so long had been that you know when you look at family income the more money a family has, the better you score on this test. they've really really tried to figure out, you know what that means and how do you give more accessibility to college and better scores for all kids? >> well it's the test prep franchise. >> right. >> they're trying to make it about -- >> it's cool because con academy is going to give free s.a.t. prep which is a knock on the billion-dollar s.a.t. prep industry. >> my problem is not with what

they did. my problem is only with the phrase s.a.t. >> i know. >> when i hear standardized test my heart starts beating, i start to sweat. >> he's sweating. coming up "new day," here's chris. >> following developments in ukraine. right now pro-russian demonstrators are facing off with riot police in the port city of odessa. and european leaders are going to be meeting this morning. so you have the problem and then those fighting for a solution and they're going to try to figure out what to do to defuse the tension. we have reporters on the ground in all the hotspots and expert analysis looking at the implications of the crisis. then we're going to bring it back home here and look at how the situation's playing out politically. hillary clinton doubled down we could say, on her comments about vladimir putin. she compares him to adolf hitler and that's always going to be an ugly situation. but the question is why? is this a tactic? can you really equate them? is this some type of strategy we're seeing at play? we'll break that down for you. we're also going to talk this morning, john and christina christina, about one that just

shocks the conscience this ruling from the supreme court in massachusetts that upskirting you know what's a nice word i can say on tv? >> what is a nice word? >> some pervert can take a camera and take a picture up a woman's skirt is constitutional. >> what? >> yep. >> how could that not be an invasion of privacy? >> that will be an interesting discussion. >> wait until you hear what i have to say about it. >> constitutional. >> all right, we will wait to hear that discussion. that sounds fascinating. >> i'm not defending that by the way! i want to let you know. >> let's just leave the camera on him and see what happens there, see where this goes. >> put down the iphone. >> that's terrible. >> chris is going to be pro. >> i'm not, i'm not. >> kidding. >> i won't have generations of women in my family attacking me. >> this is why you have to watch, believe me. this morning, scary, new details of what may have caused a mother to drive into the ocean with her young children in the

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welcome back. happening today near washington new jersey governor chris christie is going to take the stage at cpac the annual conservative political action conference. a speech there, of course is seen as a key stepping stone for republican politicians who want to run for the white house, especially as christie looks to bolster his reputation in light of the investigations into misconduct in his office. the pregnant mother who drove her van into the ocean with her three children inside was talking about demons. she was acting oddly in the hours before she left her home. that's according to family members. witnesses rushed in to the water, rushed into the surf off the coast of daytona beach. they rescued the children one by one with only seconds to spare. police taking a wait-and-see approach with the mother.

>> looking to see if criminal charges are going to be appropriate or if this is a medical issue. at this time we don't know. it's early in the investigation, but we want to get to the bottom of it to determine which is the correct way to go about it. >> one of the rescuers tells reporters two of the children in the back of the van were screaming, "our mommy's trying to kill us" seconds before they were pulled to safety. pet stores in chicago are being told no more animals from puppy mills. lawmakers there giving overwhelming approval to a measure banning the public sale of dogs cats and other pets obtained from large-scale breeding operations. beginning next march, pet stores in chicago will have to get animals from shelters rescues or humane organizations. it is a very very big change. coming up target tech chief out months after a hacking scandal compromised millions of customers' personal information. that story in "money time," next.

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good morning. welcome back to "early start." it's "money time." calm returns to markets worldwide and u.s. futures are following stocks around the world higher this morning. you know the u.s. government's monthly jobs report is out tomorrow. that's now the center of attention. and don't expect much. economists surveyed by cnn say the jobless rate probably held steady at 6.6% and only 150,000 jobs were created in the month. spring can't come soon enough for workers in areas like construction and shipping retail and restaurants. it's been just too cold to add a lot of jobs in those areas. the 28-year-old american ceo of bitcoin virtual currency

exchange was found dead in her home in singapore. the company's website says it is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of autumn radke. first meta allows users of bitcoin to trade and cash out the currencies. this is another dark cloud over bitcoin. last month, we saw the collapse of the mt. gox change in tokyo. target's tech chief is out, latest development in one of the largest data breaches in history. they will replace the head of technology and add two other positions to overhaul information security. cyber criminals went through an online portal for venders to steal personal information of up to 110 million target customers last year. and pizza a pizza chain is filing for bankruptcy protection. sbarro is struggling with weak sales and is scheduled to close food court restaurants. "new day" starts right now.

the u.s. set to move today to slap unilateral sanctions on russia. ukraine says russia has blockaded its ships. rethinking the church. hope francis shaking things up yet again this time opening the door to same-sex unions. how real are these shifts? breaking now, a dramatic day in the trial of oscar pistorius. the doctor who was first on the scene on the stand. what he saw inside that house and what pistorius said to him in the moment. your "new day" starts right now.

good morning. welcome to "new day." it's thursday march 6th, 6:00 in the east. we're going to begin with breaking news in the ukraine. 28 nations are meeting right now in brus ls searching for a way to apply for pressure on putin. there are hearings today on sanctions that the u.s. could impose yun impose yun laterally against russia. >> they are outside key government buildings in the port city of odessa. over half